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Iowa research aims to help corn silage producers
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Agri News staff writer
CALMAR, Iowa -- What started as a discussion at last year's Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation annual meeting grew into a corn silage yield trial last summer. Plans are under way to continue the plot.
"Other than our plot there are no independent yield trials being conducted on corn hybrids for silage in Iowa," said Dale Thoreson, Iowa State University Extension dairy beef and forage specialist at the recent annual meeting of the foundation at the Dairy Center south of Calmar.
After a presentation on applied research at last year's annual meeting, a coalition formed to create a corn silage test plot. The group included Extension officials, Northeast Iowa Community College instructors, Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation members and several seed corn representatives. NICC was interested in introducing students to plot research. The operations committee for the dairy foundation wanted better information for selecting silage hybrids.
American Organics, Monsanto Seed Group, Mycogen Seeds and Pioneer Hi-Bred International each submitted three hybrids known to be superior for corn silage in 2008. The companies paid for lab analysis at harvest.
The Calmar trial was established on a Fayette silt loam soil, Thoreson said. A randomized complete block design was used with three replications of each hybrid. The trial was planted May 14 and harvested Sept. 12.
Twelve hybrids planted were in 4-row plots. Each was replicated three times.
Harvested plants were weighed on a platform scale. Six stalks from each plot were randomly selected to be chopped in a wood chipper. Samples in plastic bags were transported to Dairyland Laboratories in Arcadia, Wis., where dry matter and NIR analysis was done. Tests included crude protein, acid detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber digestibility at 24 and 30 hours, in-vitro dry matter digestibility at 30 hours, starch, fat and lignin.
The laboratory also calculated milk per ton for each hybrid using "Milk2006," a program developed by Randy Shaver at the University of Wisconsin. Milk 2006 approximates animal performance based on a standard cow weight and milk production level. Shaver suggested to Thoreson that they should consider more factors than those used in his program.
"To determine a more accurate hybrid ranking we used Corn Picker for Silage, a partial budget program developed by Mike Allen at the University of Michigan," Thoreson said. "Corn Picker for Silage considers all economically important traits that vary by hybrid for corn silage production."
The dairy foundation received a grant from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture to help pay for next year's silage plot costs. Thoreson and other researchers will look at how planting a winter rye cover crop reduces wind and water erosion. More companies are interested in getting involved this year.
